411’s Wrestler of the Week 11.12.07: Week 32

Welcome to Week 32, Year-Three, of 411’s Wrestler of the Week. A quick overview to kick things off as we have some new rules for year three…

Each writer chooses FIVE wrestlers from any promotion and each wrestler gets a point total attached to that ranking. It looks a little like this…

1st – 5
2nd – 4
3rd – 3
4th – 2
5th – 1

Then we tally up the votes and the official 411 Wrestler of the Week is crowned. But wait, there’s more! Each week the top SIX vote getters get a points value for their ranking which looks something like this…

1st – 15
2nd – 12
3rd – 9
4th – 6
5th – 3
6th – 1

…and they go towards the 411 Wrestler of the Year award to be announced each year at WrestleMania. This will be posted every Monday. Let’s see who wins this week…

The Voting!

Scott Slimmer
1) Kaz
Kaz gets my first place vote for defeating Christian Cage in a great ladder match to win the Fight for the Right Tournament and become the Number One Contender for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Kaz is in the midst of by far the biggest push of his career, and it would be great for both him and TNA if he could be made into a legitimate homegrown star. A feud with TNA World Heavyweight Champion Kurt Angle could accomplish exactly that, but at this point you have to wonder if Angle is going to have time to deal with Kaz given the fact that he seems to be rather preoccupied with Kevin Nash… and Sting… and Booker T… and now AJ Styles and Tomko, evidently… and thus Christian Cage. Oh, dude, Kaz is screwed. But he looked awesome this week, so my vote stands.

2) Rey Mysterio/Finlay – Rey Mysterio and Finlay get my second place vote for putting on a pair of hella fun matches, first in a tag team match with Jeff Hardy and Mr. Kennedy on Raw, and then in a singles match on Smackdown. I’ll admit that I had some harsh words for the initial stages of this feud, but these two guys have been on fire for the last couple of weeks.
3) Booker T – Booker T gets my third place vote for debuting in TNA as Sting’s Mystery Partner of Doom. Booker has shown during the last few years that he can still put on good-to-great matches under the right circumstances, and the jump to TNA might be just what he needs for one more career revitalization.
4) Jamie Noble
5) Kenny King & Jason Blade

Christi Csonka
1) Kaz
He won the big match against Cage and it all was great and seemed so important. The best thing from the Genesis show to be sure. Kaz is awesome.

2) Gail Kim/Cindy Rogers: Gail retains her title against three ladies, while Rogers wins the WXW Elite 8 tournament.
3) The Motor City Machine Guns: The other great thing from Genesis was the huge win for the MCMG’s. Those guys are cool.
4) Booker T
5) Black Machismo

Ryan Byers
1) Frankie Kazarian
I’ve been watching Frankie Kazarian wrestle for at least six years now, and he’s always been a great performer. After TNA reduced him to being a jobber for Hermie Sadler and after his deal with WWE didn’t work out, I figured that he would be a great performer who never got a prominent role with a national promotion. However, that all changed this week. I expected that his two matches with Christian would be great, since Kaz had plenty to prove and since he’s always been talented. (More talented than Christian, I’d argue.) We got more than great matches, though. We got two encounters that really opened a lot of people’s eyes to Kazarian and allowed them to see the talent that I’d seen for quite some time. Though his big push could still be aborted at any time, I hope that this is the beginning of an extended run for the man from the SoCal indy scene. He’s earned it.

2) The Murder City Machine Guns – Speaking of big wins that I didn’t expect, hooray for Shelley and Sabin beating the Dudley Boys clean.
3) Kenny King & Jason Blade – For slaying the reprehensible two headed monster that is the Briscoe Brothers.
4) Cindy Rogers
5) Kenzo Suzuki

ARI
1) Motor City Machine Guns
They are currently the best tag team on a national television stage and at this point now everyone has to know it. A definitive win over Team 3-D, one of the most established teams of the 21st century, as well as a fantastic performance to go along with it, give Shelley and Sabin number one position this week.

2) Finlay / Rey Mysterio: For the best TV match I saw this week.
3) Young Rich & Ready for Action of Kenny King & Jason Blade: Good lord it must be a cold day in hell because I’m actually voting for Jason Blade in one of these polls. Well, King and Blade did defeat The Briscoe Brothers for the FIP tag titles and a win against the top tag team of the independent scene is worth a lot in my book.
4) Sal Rinauro
5) Degeneration X (Shawn Michaels & Triple H)

SAT
1) Kaz
Kaz gets the top slot from me by defeating Christian Cage in a ladder match at Genesis and in the process winning the Fight for the Right Tournament. Plus, this also makes him the number one contender for the TNA World Title. This was a great week for Kaz.

2) Kenny King & Jason Blade: Kenny King & Jason Blade get the second slot for winning the FIP Tag Team Titles from the Briscoes
3) Motor City Machine Guns: I thought that these guys had no chance against Team 3D and they go out there and beat Team 3D. That is definitely worthy of the third slot.
4) Booker T
5) Jamie Noble

Andy Clark
1) Kaz
Became the No. 1 Contender for the TNA World Title and defeated Christian Cage in a reportedly awesome match.

2) Motor City Machine Guns: Actually BEAT Team 3D on the PPV in a good showing and look to be the mouthpieces for the X-Division.
3) Booker T- Debuted with TNA and brought Sharmell with him.
4) Kenny King & Jason Blade
5) DX

Jeff Small
1) Kaz
Kaz did the impossible and defeated Christian Cage in his own match to win #1 contendership. While I really think that Angle/Kaz will be blown off on television, how awesome would it be if this match actually happened at a PPV? Regardless, it’s nice to see Kaz get a sustained push after the whole Serotonin fiasco.

2) Booker T – While Booker is clearly not the piece TNA needs to compete head-to-head with the WWE, he is still a name player in the world of wrestling. To make the most of his newfound home, Booker even busted out the Spinaroonie!
3) Santino Marella – Held his own against Stone Cold Steve Austin. That and his sell of the stunner is a thing of beauty.
4) Finlay
5) Motor City Machine Guns

Matt Short
1) Kaz
I didn’t think Kaz would get the win over Christian at Genesis, but he pulled it out in the end. A huge win for him and now he’s earned himself a title shot at a later date. If TNA capitalizes on this properly Kazarian could end up looking like a real star.

2) Motor City Machine Guns: Big win over Team 3D.
3) Booker T: Debuted in TNA. Nothing else really to say there.
4) Kenny King & Jason Blade
5) Kenzo Suzuki

Samuel Berman
1) “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson
A successful PWG World Title defense against the VASTLY improved Jack Evans is good enough for first this week, even amidst a myriad of title changes and surprises. Danielson is one of those rare performers who elevates essentially every match and match up, even one that a mere three years ago was a brutal one-sided squash. Kudos should also go to Evans, who as I said before, has improved tenfold over the past year or so, but Danielson entered the weekend as champion and leaves with the gold still around his waist.

2) Kenny King & Jason Blade: Defeated Jay & Mark Briscoe for the FIP Tag Team Titles in one of the true upsets of the year.
3) Eddie Kingston: Showed up in PWG as that rare mystery partner who actually lives up to (and exceeds) the hype to become a part of one of the company’s hottest angles.
4) Roderick Strong/Sal Rinauro (tie)
5) Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin)

Bayani Domingo
1) “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson
Killed Jack Evans dead. Literally, the man will now only be able to be booked with the help of Jennifer Love Hewitt whispering to him. Since PWG is taking the rest of the year off it makes Danielson’s title reign the longest in…a while I guess.

2) Motor City Machine Guns: They beat team 3D, which I called, but I’m hearing it was a good clean win in a good match. Surprise, surprise. Now if they can only come out of this feud the way they came out of the first match.
3) Kenny King & Jason Blade: Raise your hand if you thought that the YRR of King and Blade would be the team to beat the Briscoes for the title. Liars.
4) Eddie Kingston
5) Kaz

JT~!
1) Kaz
First and foremost, let me send props to the boss Larry – who happened to be the only person to call this one in the roundtable. Either way, Frankie Kazarian came in fresh – off of not only a win over James Storm but a no contest against Christian Cage. Then, he beat Cage, which is a rare thing in TNA, and captured the #1 contenders spot for the TNA World Championship. You can’t really beat that.

2) Bryan Danielson: I’ve talked before about completing a weekend against people and retaining your championship (in this case, the PWG title against Jack Evans), and I will talk about it again. BD is one of the hottest wrestlers on the planet, and beating anyone who is on the rise keeps him in this spot.
3) Motor City Machine Guns: Beat Team 3-D who – if nothing else – is making a TON of noise regardless of their opponent. Not only that, they did it CLEAN.
4) The Undertaker
5) Rey/Finlay

Randall Harrison
1) Kaz
He beats Christian Cage in “his” match and earns himself a TNA Heavyweight title shot and a chance to possibly cement himself at or near the top of the card if TNA plays their cards right. I’m really hoping they don’t screw him out of his shot or make him look the fool when he gets it. If he can get a good 15-20 minute match with Angle and can show that he can hang, he could be big for TNA. This is a big, big week in his career and he deserves this top spot.

2) Motor City Machine Guns: I’ll admit I thought that there was no way that they were going to get the win here, but color me pleasantly surprised. They put on a hell of a match, looked like they belonged and got the victory over tag team legends. I really hope they get behind the MCMG’s and push them because I don’t think that there is anyone that aren’t fans of theirs. I love these guys.
3) Kenny King and Jason Blade: Not too many can really beat the Briscoes anymore. Especially a team like these two guys and no one saw it coming. A great showing by two up-and-comers to win the FIP Tag Titles, but let’s see if they take the momentum and build off of it to become even bigger and better in the next year or if it’s just a quick switch for shock value.
4) Booker T
5) Jaime Noble

TG Corke
1) Frankie Kazarian
In every sane form of prediction booking, Kaz didn’t stand a chance in that ladder match at Genesis. Aside from me (and I forgot to chip in, as I ALWAYS do for TNA events), only one man on the 411 Roundtable dared to guess that Kaz would win it. I read a report on another site saying that if you thought Kaz would be victorious, and I quote, “you all need to have your heads examined”. However, what most of these people overlooked was a very simple, yet very effective, rule when it comes to main events – “good guy + bad guy = sale”. Since most people (rightly) predicted Angle would retain, why were they so sure Christian Cage would be his next opponent? And so I, as well as Csonka, were proved right where others looked like noobs. But this isn’t about my ego, this is about a man’s career in the profession he loves. This is Kaz’s biggest win to date, arguably, and while it’s unlikely his title match will end up being any more than eight minutes on Impact with a clean loss, for now he’s the number one contender. That’s more than enough on a slow week.

2) Motor City Machine Guns: Again, this would be a case of ‘I told you so’ if I’d actually remembered to contribute to the Roundtable, as I gathered they’d either win or lose strong. However, there’s a difference between ‘educated guess’ and ‘reality’, and it’s nice to see the reality play out as a big win for them. Well done, lads.
3) Jamie Noble: got a win on ECW and then stood tall against ECW’s champion and two contenders. It wasn’t that big a deal on its own, but this IS ‘Jobbie’ Noble we’re talking about. Good things to come?
4) Booker T
5) Rey Mysterio/Finlay

Mathew Sforcina
1) Kaz
I honestly thought the guy had burnt his bridge, but here he is, actually maybe sorta kinda being a possible pushed, ‘homegrown’ guy. Heck, the fact he’s been in WWE might be the reason!

2) Bryan Danielson- RIP Jack Evans.
3) MCMG- Good for you guys. But this story is still giving bad vibes.
4) Booker T
5) Santino Marella

Michael Bauer
1) Kaz and Sabin/Shelley
Listen, both of the matches ended cleanly so I am handing out a tie, because both were huge wins. Kaz cleanly beat Christian in a ladder match and for the first time since the invasion of talent is there a #1 contender grown in TNA not named Samoa Joe. The MCMG cleanly beat Team 3D, but now have to do the deal again because Team 3D can’t leave the X Division alone. They also delivered nicely on Impact, so I give the full marks to both.

2) Kenny King and Jason Blade – Any team that beat the Briscoes should be #1, but not this time.
3) Finlay – Gets the edge over Rey because he won the singles match against him.
4) Rey Mysterio
5) Bryan Danielson

Larry Csonka
1) KAZ
I TOLD YOU ALL. I was the only one that picked Kaz in the RT bitches! You all should really trust me more. I was also the only one to pick KJ Noons in the MMA RT. I’ll be giving out financial advice later this week.

2) The MCMG’s: A big clean win over Team 3D in a great match.
3) Booker T: A big debut, the fans loved him and he seemed full of energy and ready to roll.
4) Kenny King and Jason Blade
5) Finlay

THE WINNERS!